I couldn’t hold back the laughter bubbling out of me, so I covered my mouth with one hand.
To my surprise, the moment I realized Ilhwiilbi was Heunjeok, a rush of genuine delight rose inside me.
That bastard Heunjeok—he deleted his account and ran, but couldn’t even last that long before raising an alt? And he came back just to start shit with me again?
Seriously, what kind of insane lunatic does that?
Then why the hell was I this excited?
“Hm, hm.”
Even though there was no one around to see me, I still felt weirdly self-conscious and let out an awkward fake cough.
Forcing the corners of my mouth back down, I typed into chat.
[Party] TodayIsSunday: kk that’s enough now
[Party] TodayIsSunday: they’ll handle the boss
[Party] MovieIsSoSo: huh?
[Party] MeowMeowRawr: ㅇ.ㅇ?
[Party] rxrx78: we are...?
Completely ignoring the confused murmuring from the guild members who’d suddenly been handed boss duty, I fired a skill at the remaining monsters.
The mobs that had taken Ilhwiilbi all day to barely kill melted in one hit from my attack.
[Party] TodayIsSunday: stay quietly in the back lol
[Party] Ilhwiilbi: hehe?
Even if my sudden attitude change clearly confused him, he didn’t seem to dislike it. Ilhwiilbi hurried right over to my side.
Watching that obnoxious Heunjeok reduced to a level 60 newbie who struggled against trash mobs like this kept making me laugh.
He was… kind of cute.
‘If he went as far as leveling an alt, then I guess the Heunjeok account really was deleted.’
It hadn’t just been the character.
The whole account had been deleted, so there was no way to recover it.
Which meant the annoying bastard with skill on par with mine was gone now, and all that remained was this cute newbie.
A satisfied smile came naturally.
Well, adding him to the guild was a bit much, but friending him and messing around like this from time to time didn’t sound bad.
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: watch while you handle the boss
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: Ilhwiilbi = Heunjeok yup yup
[Guild] Maha: ??
[Guild] GoodWeather: based on what exactly..?
[Guild] TurnTheLightsOn: no matter how I look at it um;; Ilhwiilbi’s kinda bad tho
[Guild] TurnTheLightsOn: the skill gap from Heunjeok is 😭😭
[Guild] sky004: but if it really is Heunjeok
[Guild] sky004: maybe he’s pretending to suck on purpose?
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: yup
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: he’s acting bad on purpose
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: I caught on instantly lol
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: nobody knows Heunjeok better than me
[Guild] Maha: weird flex....
[Guild] MeowMeowRawr: why don’t you two just get married?ㅇㅅㅇ
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: ㅡㅡ
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: anyway it’s definitely Heunjeok
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: fr
[Guild] GoodWeather: if it’s anyone else maybe not
[Guild] GoodWeather: but if Sunday’s this sure it might really be true;;
[Guild] rxrx78: you two were close after all
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: we weren’t close
[Guild] Maha: well
[Guild] Maha: you two messed with each other literally every day
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: we did not hang out
[Guild] MeowMeowRawr: then are we inviting Ilhwi-chan into our guild now??
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: no
[Guild] Maha: what
[Guild] Maha: then why’d we go through all this trouble
It wasn’t like I’d figured out Ilhwiilbi’s identity just to recruit him into the guild.
Looks like everyone had misunderstood something.
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: I figured it out cuz hiding it pissed me off
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: now that I know I can block him lol
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: for now just finish the boss go go
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: hurry up ㅡㅡ
[Guild] rxrx78: daaamn
[Guild] MeowMeowRawr: 8ㅅ8
[Guild] Maha: says the guy doing absolutely nothing
[Guild] MovieIsSoSo: you really are blocking him right..?
[Guild] MovieIsSoSo: you’re not gonna keep carrying him right?
[Guild] MeowMeowRawr: feels like you’re already finding him cute thoㅋ.ㅋ
[Guild] TodayIsSunday: nonsense no
Saying I’d block him was a lie, but I had to shake the guild members off somehow.
If I honestly told them I was planning to drag Ilhwiilbi around with me, they’d keep following us around like they did today.
No reason to bring along these idiots who weirdly matched Ilhwiilbi’s energy anyway.
As I watched the raid wrap up, I slowly started planning all the ways I’d mess with Ilhwiilbi from now on.
Everything I’d suffered until now—I’d pay it all back this chance.
The thought of dragging Heunjeok, who’d become someone that could never beat me again, all over the place and making full use of him naturally lifted my mood.
***
I was humming to myself while making coffee when my boss walked up and asked,
“Did something good happen?”
“Huh?”
Was it really that obvious?
I awkwardly shook my head, but my boss lowered her voice and asked again with a teasing smile.
“Come on, it’s obvious something good happened. Oh right, didn’t you say a senior from school was stopping by today? Is that senior a girl?”
“She is, but it’s not like that.”
It was true that I’d asked in advance to leave my shift an hour early because I had plans today, but everything else was just my boss misunderstanding the situation.
Leaving her still suspicious gaze behind, I headed to the counter just in time to greet a customer who had walked in.
“Welcome.”
The moment I lifted my eyes while greeting them, I saw a familiar face.
It was that picky expensive-looking regular from a few days ago—the one who’d mistaken the cookies my boss prepared as a freebie from me.
“One slice of strawberry fresh cream cake and an iced Americano.”
Same as always.
As I rang him up, I glanced up at him.
Last time, the regular had looked as exhausted as I did, but today he seemed to be in a pretty good mood.
Weirdly enough, he kept overlapping with me.
“I’ll let you know with the buzzer once it’s ready.”
With the corners of my lips still lifted, I handed him one of the buzzers stacked at the edge of the counter.
‘Just a coincidence.’
And even if it really did overlap, so what?
The only thing I knew about him was his face.
Just as I was about to make the iced Americano he’d ordered, the bell above the café door rang again and a new customer entered.
“Do Haejun!”
“Senior, you’re here?”
It was Im Sohee, the university senior I’d planned to meet.
“Long time no see. So this is the café where you work part-time. It’s spacious and nice. Can I order now?”
“Yeah. I’ll pay, so just order whatever you want.”
Feeling bad that she’d come all the way here while I was busy, I said that, but Im Sohee burst into laughter and waved both hands.
“No way. I’m not evil enough to mooch off a student on leave. I’ll have a chocolate shake. You order something for yourself too. Dessert’s fine too, just add whatever’s good. Since this is the café you work at, I can’t just order drinks.”
“It’s really okay if I pay.”
“Hey. Just quietly accept your senior treating you. It’s not like it’s expensive, it’s just drinks and dessert.”
In the end, I had no choice but to take the card she offered and finish the payment.
While Im Sohee looked for an empty seat, I was about to start on the accumulated orders when my boss tapped my shoulder.
“There’s only ten minutes left anyway, so just call it quitting early and go change. You said you were going to talk here, right?”
“Is that really okay?”
“She even ordered as a customer, so it’s better for me if anything. Go sit and talk. I’ll bring over the drinks and dessert.”
This was exactly when my boss’s straightforward personality was the best.
Untying the apron around my waist, I asked for one last bit of understanding.
“Then I’ll head out an hour early today. And I’ll borrow one table.”
“Got it.”
Leaving the counter in my boss’s hands, I stepped out and scanned the café for where Im Sohee had sat down.
The moment I spotted her from behind, I noticed someone else too.
‘Ugh…’
Across from where Im Sohee was sitting was that regular from earlier.
To make it worse, it was the section with two-person tables, so the distance between seats was ridiculously close.
‘Of all places… this is kind of uncomfortable.’
The cookie incident from last time still felt weirdly awkward, so he was the exact kind of person I didn’t want to sit near.
But what could I do?
At this distance, even if I quietly asked Im Sohee to move tables, he’d probably still hear some of it.
Going that far just to avoid him would be even stranger.
Swallowing a sigh, I walked over.
Im Sohee, who had been busily typing away on her laptop, looked up in surprise when I sat in the chair across from her.
“Huh? You’re already here?”
“My boss let me get off early.”
As I pulled the chair in and sat, I casually flicked my gaze behind me.
The regular sitting back-to-back with me was, unusually, without his laptop today. Instead, he had stacked two or three books and was reading them.
From the title I caught in passing, they seemed to be mystery novels.
“Good. Then should we get straight to the main point?”
Tap.
After hitting the Enter key with a crisp motion, Im Sohee turned the laptop toward me.
On the screen was a PPT neatly organizing the desired concept, direction, and product details.
“Like I said on the phone, I’d like you to take charge of just the two designs going on the homepage. That keyboard you designed before is getting a new series.”
Im Sohee ran a business selling PC-related products.
Now in its fourth year, it had grown steadily, and she said she was even planning to open an offline store next year.
As a design major, I’d previously taken freelance work from her, creating detailed product shots and a homepage banner for one of her keyboard products.
Now that the keyboard was getting a new line, she wanted promotional designs similar to the ones from back then.